The production of coated refractory fibers is known as taught, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,519, issued Feb. 18, 1969 to Carl M. Zavanut and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,683, issued Feb. 23, 1971 to Charles R. Morelock. U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,293, issued July 11, 1972 to Bernard A. Gruber also discloses coated fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,124, issued July 13, 1976 to Wilford S. Stewart, discloses carbonaceous material which may be reinforced with fibers and whiskers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,154, issued Mar. 23, 1982 to Francois LeDru discloses fibers in a matrix which is partially pyrolytic carbon. U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,969 discloses a flexible thermally insulative refractory composition which may contain inorganic fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,281,261 discloses carbonization of alumina coated fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,340, issued Aug. 19, 1969 to Ralph L. Hough discloses fibers in a pyrolytic matrix. U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,610, issued Dec. 10, 1974 to Joseph B. Byrne, et al, discloses long carbon fibers coated with amorphous carbon and dispersed in a resin matrix. U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,248, issued Nov. 9, 1976 to Dieter W. Bauer discloses carbon coated on long fibers with graphite deposited in the pores of a fiber reinforced product. U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,482, issued May 1, 1979 to Carl B. Reynolds, et al, discloses uncoated fibers in a carbon matrix. U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,413, issued Dec. 11, 1979 to Gabriel P. DeMunda discloses uncoated long fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,873, issued July 5, 1983 to Gilbert W. Brassell, et al discloses uncoated fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,038, issued Oct. 22, 1968 to William C. Beasley discloses uncoated graphite fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,289, issued Aug. 19, 1969 to Cornelius W. Rohl, et al discloses uncoated fibers.
Carbon coated nuclear fuel particles have been formulated which have certain advantages over uncoated nuclear fuel particles as is discussed in the book "Vapor Deposition" by Powell, Oxley and Blocher, Wiley & Sons, 1966.
The coating of hollow microsphere with metal is also known as reported, for example, in Proceeding of the Conference On Chemical Vapor Deposition, Fifth International Conference, Edited by J. M. Blocher, H. E. Hintermann and L. H. Idall, The Electrochemical Society, Princeton, N.J., 1975, in an article entitled "Microspherical Laser Targets by CVD" by William J. McCreary, pp 714-725.
The prior art does not teach or suggest very small generally spherical hollow particles, having a greatest dimension of no more than 5 millimeters and having an electrically conductive coating substantially equally covering the exterior surface of the coating, which coating must have at least about 70 atomic percent carbon and must be from about 10 Angstroms to about 500 Angstroms in thickness or such advantageous products as can be made from such particles including matrices having such particles dispersed therethroughout or the use of a plurality of such particles as flowing electrodes.